In the 1920s, many experiments in art practices
took place in Calcutta and Santiniketan. Amidst
this activity, the story of Jamini Roy, who
turned to the folk arts of Bengal, is
remarkable. Although trained at the Government
School of Art, Calcutta, Roy’s artistic impulses
were rooted in his growing years in Beliatore
village in the Birbhum district of undivided
Bengal at that time. Roy adopted the
simplification of the forms, the bold, flat
colours and the medium, material and themes of
local folk paintings. He discarded expensive
canvas and oil paint and opted for the more
inexpensive material and medium of the folk
artist. He rendered images from Ramayana and
Krishna Lila. He painted ordinary men and women
from the village, reinventing popular images
from the patua’s repertoire. Jamini Roy
restricted his palette to seven colours- Indian
red, yellow ochre, cadmium green, vermillion,
grey, blue and white. These were mostly earthy
or mineral colours.
The appropriation of folk idioms manifested in
various ways. There was a phase in which he
adopted the calligraphic brush lines of Kalighat
Patuas to create sophisticated forms. The
austerity of lines only serves to highlight
Roy’s superb control over brush. The lines drown
lyrically and sometimes even sensuously with
lampblack over white or pale gray background
show not only vigour, but also the poetry latent
in the human form. The paintings Baul and
Woman Seated are excellent example of
this style.
Roy brought the sensibilities of a formerly
educated artist to his appropriation of folk
idiom. He can not escape sophistication in his
figuration. Moreover the monumentality that he
often brings to his figuration recalls the
quality of classical sculptures.
Jamini Roy
Mother and Child, Oil on canvas, 46.5 X 116.5 cm
Jamini Roy
Bengali Woman, Tempera on cardboard, 35.5 X 73.7 cm
Jamini Roy
Gopini, Tempera on cloth, 68 X 51.2 cm
Jamini Roy
Santhal Girl, Oil on canvas, 48.5 X 106 cm
Jamini Roy
Cat and the lobster, Tempera on paper, 39.7 X 27.5 cm
Jamini Roy
Santhal Dance, Tempera on paper, 70.5 X 36.8 cm
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